Thursday, December 29, 2011

As the end of
the year approaches I realize I did pretty well in accomplishing my genealogy
goals. Those goals and the final report in bold is listed below:

·Produce a monograph of the Hardenbrook family 1830 – 1930. I have so much interesting information
written up on this family during these years it is time to share with others
during research in Seneca and Cayuga County, NY. Almost done. I am doing a
read through to find any critical holes in the write-up and data, as well as
making sure all citations are complete.

·Produce a monograph of the Shepard family for my cousin. I have sorted through the two
suitcases. I will scan photos,
research this family, write up what I find and return the material to my cousin
in an acid free archival box by Christmas 2011. Done. I produced a monograph and presented it
to my aunt on Mother’s Day. I am glad I did as she died on July 27.

·Continue to share genealogical research information through my blog. Done!

·Develop the 1880-1889 Newtown Death Database from vital records book
held at the town clerk’s office. (The 1890-1899 Newtown Death database was
developed in 2010; an article has been submitted about the importance of this
database to the February 2011 issue of Connecticut Ancestry). Not
accomplished.

·Continue to search for descendants of Elizabeth Nunn Siebert. Worked on, but still no further success
with this family.

·Attend the NERGC Conference in April 2011. Done.

·Provide Tompkins County Rootsweb (http://nytompki.org/)
with transcribed material. From
the Shepard family suitcases I have retrieved a number of IthacaJournals
in which I have saved the obits and will transcribe for this site as I have
done in the past. Done.

·Keep a journal. Done.

Over the next few days I will evaluate my genealogy research
and set new goals for 2012. Happy
searching!

This has been an emotional and trying
year that continues as such right up to the end.We survived all Mother Nature threw at us – Record snow/ice
dams in winter, record rainfall through spring and summer, a Microburst in June
(power out for three days), Tropical Storm Irene (power out for five days), and
then Nor’easter Alfred (power out eight-plus days).We mourned the loss of our dear family members, Elaine Hill,
Lee Agard, Beverly Agard, and Ray’s mom, Kathryn Maki.

Indeed it was a
difficult year in many ways. And in June we decided to put our home on the
market (at the worst possible economic time), and buy into a Del Webb community
in Fredericksburg, Virginia.In
four months we had only three showings. It was a dismal outlook for the
transition we had planned. But our guardian angel (and possibly the two St.
Joseph statutes planted upside down) was looking out for us. On November 27 we
accepted an offer on our house; exactly three weeks later we had packed up our
three-bedroom home and arranged for movers to store our furniture until our new
home at Celebrate Virginia was ready.

Although our
stress level at times was over the top, we are so thankful. We are thankful our
son invited us into his home for Christmas, and thankful for a sister-in-law
who opened her home to us until our new home is built.

We are thankful
Fredericksburg has an established genealogy club and we hope to become active
members. We are excited to explore this historic area and find out what can be
done here to assist genealogists. We love to create databases!!

And we are
thankful for our family and for our many friends in Upstate New York and
Newtown, Connecticut.

About Me

I am a semi-retired Virtual Assistant. I do transcription work when I am not documenting and writing up my family history. I have transcribed oral histories for the Newtown (CT) Oral History project, the Ulysses (NY) Oral History Project, and Newfield (NY) Archives Alive Oral History Project. I am a member of the National Genealogical Society, Genealogy Club of Newtown, CT, Newtown Historical Society, Ulysses Historical Society, Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Fredericksburg Regional Genealogical Society, Manatee Genealogical Society, member and docent of the Anna Maria Island Historical Society.